5 months ago
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The Delhi High Court connected Wednesday (January 28, 2026) granted 4 weeks to the National Investigation Agency (NIA) to respond to a reply filed by separatist person Yasin Malik to its entreaty seeking decease punishment for him successful a panic backing case, and listed the substance for proceeding connected April 22, 2026.
As Malik, who was virtually appearing from Tihar jailhouse wherever helium is serving beingness condemnation successful the case, accused the bureau of "wasting time" and causing him "trauma" by "taking dates" successful the entreaty filed successful 2023, a seat of Justices Navin Chawla and Ravinder Dudeja said determination was nary urgency successful the case.
"There is nary urgency. This is for enhancement of sentence. You are already connected beingness sentence," the Bench remarked.
The tribunal gave 4 weeks arsenic "last opportunity" to the NIA to record its rejoinder.
NIA counsel submitted that Mailk filed a lengthy reply to the agency's appeal, which adjacent had contented "not related" to the case, and the rejoinder was being vetted.
He besides objected to Malik's assertion of NIA seeking repeated adjournments, and said Malik himself took 1 twelvemonth to record his reply to the appeal.
He further informed the tribunal that the bureau was seeking an in-camera proceeding successful the matter.
A proceedings tribunal successful Delhi awarded Malik — main of the banned Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) — beingness condemnation connected May 24, 2022, aft holding him blameworthy of assorted offences nether the stringent Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) and the Indian Penal Code (IPC).
The NIA filed an entreaty successful 2023 successful the precocious tribunal seeking enhancement of his beingness word to the maximum punishment of decease penalty.
In its plea earlier the precocious tribunal for enhancement of condemnation to decease penalty, the NIA said if specified "dreaded terrorists" are not fixed superior punishment connected relationship of pleading guilty, determination would beryllium implicit erosion of the sentencing argumentation and the terrorists would person a mode retired to debar superior punishment.
A beingness sentence, the NIA asserted, is not commensurate with the transgression committed by terrorists erstwhile the federation and families of soldiers person suffered nonaccomplishment of lives and the proceedings court's decision that Malik's crimes did not autumn wrong the class of the "rarest of the uncommon cases" for assistance of decease punishment is "ex-facie legally flawed and wholly unsustainable".
In his reply filed to the NIA's appeal, Mailk said that helium spent astir 3 decades arsenic a cardinal fig successful a state-sanctioned "backchannel" mechanism, moving with a succession of premier ministers, quality chiefs, and adjacent concern tycoons to foster bid successful Jammu and Kashmir.
In an 85-page affidavit submitted earlier the Delhi High Court, Malik shared details astir his travel from his schoolhouse days to links with terrorists and meetings with governmental leaders.
He claimed the State was attempting to "erase" the past of engagement.
Malik said "being a scapegoat successful authorities isn't a caller thing, it's a benignant of a caller mean but being a sacrificial goat is thing which goes beyond the shard of precocious handedness of morality, if astatine each authorities had one".
